Too Long
by colour me impressed
Summary: He had waited too long and now, she was lost to him.


**September 2010

* * *

**

News had been circulating the bullpen that Perry's nephew was now a part of the Daily Planet crew. Clark had been originally doubtful about that particular piece of gossip, as Perry hadn't mentioned anything to his dynamic duo about his nephew, but he knew now that the Editor-in-Chief's family member truly was an employee of the Daily Planet.

Clark smiled amiably at the newest reporter, outstretching his hand. "I'm Clark. Clark Kent."

"Richard White," said the brown-haired man with an equally amicable tilt of his lips. He took Clark's hand, shaking it firmly before releasing it. "It's nice to finally meet you, Clark." At Clark's questioning gaze, Richard elaborated. "Uncle Perry talks about his star team quite a bit."

Understanding dawned on Clark's features. "Ah," he murmured, nodding his head a bit.

He was about to depart when, over Richard's shoulder, he saw Lois stride into the bullpen and head their way, her eyes scanning the notebook in her arms. His smile brightened at the sight of her, but he returned his gaze to Richard's.

"Speaking of which," he began, holding onto Lois' shoulders as she passed right by them (to engrossed in her notes to notice them) and spinning her around to face the other man, "here's the other half of the team. Lois, meet Richard White. He's Perry's nephew. Richard, Lois Lane. Enough said."

"I've heard much about you," Richard said, extending his hand to Lois.

Lois smirked, balancing her notes in one hand to shake Richard's hand. "Of course, you have. I'm the Chief's favourite."

Richard laughed as he let go of Lois' hand. "It's a shame Uncle Perry's never told me about how beautiful you are in person, though," he said with an eye-catching smile. "I would have applied for a job here sooner."

Lois raised a brow, the smirk still toying with her lips. "A charmer, huh?" She turned and began walking to her desk, but not before telling her amused partner, "Seems like you've got competition for the title of 'Newsroom Heartthrob', Smallville."

Clark only laughed at her comment.

In hindsight, Clark realised that he should have been proclaiming his love for her instead.

**

* * *

October 2010

* * *

**

Clark stood outside the door to the Talon. He held a colourful bouquet of lilies, Lois' favourite flower, in one hand, while the other was poised to knock.

Today was the day he was going to ask Lois Lane to go out with him on a date.

Clark balked at the intimidating thought: he was going to ask _Lois Lane_ out to a date. The courage drained out of him and Clark placed the flowers at the doorstep before leaving.

"Better luck next month," Clark mumbled under his breath.

**

* * *

November 2010

* * *

**

Richard asked Lois on a date in front of the entire bullpen to increase his chances of receiving a 'yes' from the seemingly uninterested-in-love Lane. Clark doesn't utter a word during the entire ordeal, choosing to be a silent observer. He hadn't expected her to say that 'yes' Richard hoped for, as no amount of 'boo's from the crowd could move Lois to change her mind when it had already been set.

When she agreed, his eyes widened in disbelief.

**

* * *

December 2010

* * *

**

Clark heard that Lois had agreed to a twelfth date with Richard from Chloe. The shock paralysed him – he hadn't even known there was a second date.

**

* * *

January 2011

* * *

**

From across the desk, Lois grinned at him. "Guess what, Smallville?"

Clark looked up from his notes. "You're pregnant," he deadpanned, hoping with all that he was that his joke wasn't the truth. When she chuckled lightly, relief flooded him and he flashed her a brief smile – he'd been really low in stock on those, given the bleak situation he was in, but he was always ready to give one to Lois.

"Nice guess, but no. Richard asked me to be his girlfriend." She tried telling him the information in an offhand way, but Clark could see the sparkle in her eyes. The way she looked and how she was trying not to squirm excitedly in her seat sort of reminded him of a teenage girl with a high school crush.

Trying to keep the pain from filtering onto his face, Clark took the bait. "Really? What did you say?" He already knew the answer, but he didn't want to hear it from Lois; it would make the truth all the more real and all the more painful.

"I said yes!" she replied, glee worming its way into her voice.

(He wondered: why did life enjoy throwing curveballs at him? For once in his life, couldn't he be thrown an easy pitch?)

Clark swallowed the uncomfortable lump in his throat. He smiled and, though he was trying his best, it still looked broken. "That's great."

Lois frowned, noticing it automatically. It didn't surprise Clark, really – nothing ever got past Lois Lane. She opened her mouth to probably ask him what was wrong, but Richard came up to them, then. Clark bit back a growl when his hand rested on Lois' shoulder. He quickly smoothed over the cracks in his smile, to ease Lois' suspicion, saying, "Congratulations. I'm happy for you two."

But really, he felt like they'd replaced his heart with a chunk of Kryptonite.

It hurt.

**

* * *

February 2011

* * *

**

"Clark, come on. Angela isn't that bad."

"No, Oliver."

"Why won't you date her? She's nice, she's smart, she's funny. I think you would really like her."

"I'm not going to like her, Chloe."

"And how would you know?"

"Because she's not Lois."

The unadulterated anguish that shadowed his face effectively halted Oliver and Chloe's attempts at getting Clark to date.

**

* * *

January 2012

* * *

**

"All right, guys, gather 'round!"

Doing as he was told, Clark, among other guests (that included Chloe and Oliver), assembled by Lois. Like everyone else, Clark didn't know why Lois had called them to her apartment. All they knew was that she was throwing a party.

A bad feeling had planted itself firmly in his gut when he had walked into the threshold, and Clark still couldn't shake it off.

He watched as Lois' eyes jumped nervously from face to face, the thoughts in her head probably of the unsettling sort. They landed on him last and, when their eyes connected, his lips curved upwards encouragingly, in hopes of easing her nervousness. It seemed to do the trick – Lois smiled brightly back.

Butterflies fluttered in his stomach.

Richard materialised beside her (seemingly out of thin air) and wrapped his hand around Lois' hand. The smile she gave _him_ could have temporarily blinded someone.

All the butterflies in his stomach were mercilessly torched with a flamethrower.

Lois addressed the small crowd of guests in her living room, her eyes moving over them. "I know all of you are wondering why you're here. Well, to put it simply," she raised her left arm, her hand pointing down with all her fingers spread out, "Richard and I are engaged!"

In the moments following her announcement, Clark was pretty sure his heart had stopped beating.

Many of the guests rushed forward to congratulate the couple, separating according to gender. The men patted Richard on back, while the women hugged Lois and cooed over her engagement ring.

Clark hung back, accompanied by the small percentage that had been rooting for "Team Clois," as Bart had called it a couple times. While they took on the outward appearance of being happy for Lois and Richard, Clark could feel them patting his shoulder while telling him their doleful condolences.

"Clark, I'm sorry."

"CK, I'm so sorry, man."

"It'll be okay, Clark. Don't worry, she'll come around. You know how thick-headed Lois can get."

Clark couldn't hear them. While his heart remained still, all he could hear were Lois' words on an endless loop. _Richard and I are engaged, Richard and I are engaged, Richard and I are engaged._

"Kiss! Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!" The chants of the other guests jumpstarted his heart, and it began beating again. Clark wished he had just died instead.

He looked on as Lois and Richard removed the space between them. While he didn't want to, his superhearing automatically tuned in on the words they whispered.

"We should do what they say before they take out the pitchforks."

"Gladly."

Clark clenched his fists. He wanted to tell the other guests to shut the hell up. He wanted to rip Richard away from Lois and punch the man's face in.

He wanted _Lois_. But it was clear she was never going to be his.

Lois' lips locked with Richard's, cheers erupting around her. She didn't notice that some of her friends were silent, or that there were worried looks plastered onto their faces.

Nor did she notice a raven-haired reporter flee the scene with two sympathetic blondes at his heels.

----

Clark could hear Chloe and Oliver yell at him to slow down and talk, but he didn't heed their pleas. He didn't want to talk; he just wanted to get away. He wanted to get away from Chloe and Oliver – he didn't care that they only wanted to help him – but, most of all, he wanted to get away from Lois and Richard. He _needed_ to get away. He needed to salvage what was left of his maimed heart; he had to try piecing it back together, even though he knew it was irreparably damaged.

Only Lois could fix it, and he knew very well that that wasn't going to happen. (She would be too busy being engaged to Richard.)

He turned sharply into the nearest alleyway, cognisant enough to keep his secret hidden from the people milling about on the streets. Clark didn't check to see if the alley was abandoned or not; as soon as darkness engulfed him, he ran as far as he could, as fast as he could, without a backward glance.

----

Clark had destroyed an entire forest and punched a sizeable crater into a mountainside before he finally fell to his knees. Shoulders slumped sadly and his head, usually held high, bowed in defeat. His fingers scratched little trenches into the ground before saline water finally leaked from his eyes.

He had waited too long and now, she was lost to him.

**

* * *

February 2012

* * *

**

On Valentine's Day, Richard moved into Lois' apartment.

Unsurprisingly, the brunette had enlisted Clark to help them move his boxes into her home. Clark had hoped that, since he was third-wheeling, they'd lay off on the affectionate gestures and all that jazz fiancés did. However, Clark knew that no amount of hope and prayers would stop the inevitable.

If they were shamelessly affectionate at the bullpen, where there were dozens of people in it at a single time, why would they be absolute freezes in what was soon to be their home, where there was only one to witness everything they did?

After seeing them kiss for the sixth time, Clark told them that he didn't feel very well.

And he really didn't. Every time they kissed, it felt like someone was kicking him in the chest with a stiletto heel lined with Kryptonite.

**

* * *

March 2012

* * *

**

Clark didn't know how he had been roped into the role, but he had somehow become Chloe's proxy (something came up and she was needed as Watchtower) in picking a wedding dress for Lois, with Lois. He'd fought valiantly with every excuse he had at his disposal: he had laundry to do, he needed to check something for his mom, he needed to finish up his article or Perry would have his head – he used all of it up, and Lois didn't even budge.

In fact, he'd even said he had been strong-armed into a date with Catherine Grant and that it was today, meaning he had to get ready now. (A weird look came over Lois' face when he'd said that, though for the life of him, he couldn't figure out why.) For some reason, mentioning his nonexistent date with the gossip columnist only made Lois fight harder into getting him to pick a wedding dress with her.

"Smallville, it's my _wedding_ dress. You only get to pick it with me once in your entire lifetime, while you can have a date with a scandal monger any time next week. Come on, Clark. Please?"

Clark had sighed, giving in, and Lois had smiled triumphantly. He excused himself to 'cancel his date'; in reality, he had called Chloe, telling her that she owed him big time for the suffering he was going to be subjected to.

----

Clark sat on the cushioned bench impatiently, his eyes on his watch. They'd been in the dress store for _six hours_, and Clark was certain that it was against the law to stay in the same shop for four!

"Lois, are you done yet?" Clark complained over his shoulder, brushing a small piece of thread from his tie. He heard a curtain slide open behind him and he turned around, hoping that meant Lois was finished changing. She was, and Clark had to clench his jaw to keep it from dropping open.

She was gorgeous. It may have been a simple, strapless, white wedding dress, but Lois wore it beautifully.

"Well, what do you think?" She outstretched her arms, twirling in place to show him every angle, and it left Clark breathless. It was her expectant look and the sound of her clearing her throat that spurred him into finding his voice and speaking.

"Lois, you look.. _radiant_," he breathed out, awed.

She grinned; it lit up her entire face. "Perfect." She paused for a beat. "Do you think Richard will like it?"

And reality hit him like a runaway train.

She wasn't wearing that dress for him. She was wearing that dress for _Richard_. She was going to be Lois Lane-_White_ in five months. Not Kent; never Lois Lane-Kent.

Five months suddenly seemed like too short a time.

While she looked at her reflection in the mirror, Clark forced a smile onto his lips. "Yeah. Richard will love it."

----

Later that day, Clark submitted his resignation letter.

As he left the office, he heard Perry mutter sadly under his breath, "It's a wonder that boy lasted that long."

Clark silently agreed.

**

* * *

April 2012

* * *

**

For the past two weeks, Clark had been avoiding Lois to the best of his abilities.

While his nerves (and his newfound inability to stomach any more "Richis love", as the gossip-mongers in the office called it) were a factor in his hesitation to seek her out and simply break the news to her, Clark also wanted to pick out the right words. He wanted to tell her that, yes, he was leaving, but he _was_ going to be back – just after an indefinite amount of time.

The fact that he was a journalist didn't seem to help him find the right words.

----

Clark threw the rest of his toiletries into his luggage bag before he reached around to zip it up. Picking it up by the handle, he hauled it down to the living room and set it beside the couch.

The front door suddenly slammed open, vibrating from the force it had hit the wall. From that sound alone, Clark knew that Hurricane Lane had hit his house. He dusted his hands on his jeans and turned to see a seething Lois.

"When were you going to tell me?"

Clark opened his mouth to reply, but Lois immediately cut him off.

"Why is it, _Clark_," she began, venom dripping from his name, "that I find out about that," she pointed at the suitcase by his feet, "from an _intern_? One who only started working at the Planet a _week_ ago? Were you planning on leaving without saying a goodbye?" Lois began trembling, an imperceptive action to the human eye. Clark pretended not to notice it, but he did wonder if it was from anger or from something else entirely.

"No." He spoke, finally, and he was surprised at the calmness in his voice. "I was going to drop by your ap—" he stopped speaking abruptly and quickly amended his incorrect statement, "I was going to drop by yours and Richard's apartment right now, to tell you. But, as always, you've beat me to the chase." Clark smiled, hoping it would coax one onto Lois' lips.

If anything, the corners of her mouth fell even more. Clark's smile faded.

"Why was I the last to know, Clark?" Any trace of anger was gone from her visage, leaving only hurt and vulnerability. (It was times like these that Clark wished Lois would stop being so open with him emotionally.)

Clark sighed, running a hand through his hair. _This_ was why she was the last to know – because Clark never wanted to see her in pain because of him. But, he didn't say that. In true Clark Kent fashion, he took the easy way out; the emotionally distant way out.

"I didn't know how to tell you. I guess all I can say is that I'm leaving, Lois."

"Well, thanks for the heads up," she said scathingly, her anger returning full-force.

"I'm sorry, Lois." His eyes reflected just how sorry he was.

However, Lois' scowl didn't soften, though Clark hadn't expected it to. "I'm sure you are, Clark, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm still the one left behind."

Clark could see tears gather at her eyes, though she didn't allow them to fall. A dagger of pain stabbed his heart, and it twisted in its place to know that he had caused it.

"This isn't permanent, Lois," he said quietly, all too aware of the space that separated them. He wanted so badly to cross it and embrace her tightly, but he didn't want to overstep any boundaries. Lois Lane was, after all, almost Lois Lane-White. He may hold the title of a good friend (if this meeting didn't go south), but Clark knew giving Lois a bear hug would only up the awkward level – only for him, though. He was the one with the unrequited love issue.

Clark could tell that Lois was trying to hide it, but hope leaked into her choice of words. "You're coming back?"

He nodded, allowing a corner of his lips to lift ever so slightly. "As if I could stay away from you too long," he joked, though he knew that his words held so many grains of truth.

Her answer was too ambiguous to tell if she had found those grains, and Clark didn't know as to whether he should be disappointed or relieved. "Of course," Lois said plainly, her lips mirroring his. "How long?"

Clark shrugged; Lois frowned as a result.

"Where are you going?"

Again, Clark shrugged. Lois exhaled sharply in annoyance.

"I'm travelling, Lois. I'll go wherever the wind takes me."

Lois was unsatisfied with his answer, but she didn't press him any further. "That sounds like you ripped it from a horribly cheesy movie."

Clark smiled at the remark. "How'd you know?" he joked, glancing idly at his wristwatch. 7:50. His plane to Argentina, his journey's starting point (he still had to replant two trees for every one he'd destroyed), left in forty minutes. Clark decided he'd do the travelling thing the human way; it would give his heart and his mind more time to wrap around the concept of Lois marrying someone who wasn't him.

His smile faded, and he breathed out another heavy sigh. "I have to go now, Lois," he said, reluctantly bending over to grab his luggage. He moved towards the front door.

"Wait."

She stopped him before he brushed past her, holding a hand to his chest. Warmth radiated from where she touched him. Clark looked down, his sombre, blue eyes focussed solely on her; quietly committing every single feature of her face to memory. He didn't know when he would see her next.

"Why?"

_Because it hurts to see you with another man. Because if I don't, I'll try to stop your wedding. Because I love you so much, I want you to be happy. Because letting you marry Richard is what is going to make you happy._

"Because I think it's time I see the world."

He leant down and kissed her cheek lightly, boundaries be damned. "Lock up the fort for me?" At her slight nod, Clark sent her one last smile. "Bye, Lois. Don't miss me too much." And then, he left her alone in the silence of the farmhouse.

Lois' fingertips touched her cheek; she could still feel his lips pressed softly to her skin.

"See you around, Smallville."


End file.
